It's Only A Matter Of Time
by Aechigo
Summary: Have Jeremie and Aelita come up with a program for time travel? Much more interesting than te summary makes it sound. JxA, YxU, OxOC. T to be safe.
1. Prologue

**A/N: So, here I am once more. Another story, and still no life. I've come to notice the suckishness of some of my earlier stores, and have decided to put them on the backburner for now. Most of them, though reviewers have raved, and faved, and prodded me to continue are simply not all that great. I hope to show you that, in this story, I've improved greatly. Two years kind of makes a difference xD**

**Anyway, I got the idea for this story the other day, while thinking about time travel, if I'm not mistaken. I'm thinking about switching off prospectives as I go along, so we'll see how that turns out. I shall now stop boring you and let you read. XD**

I glanced over Aelita's shoulder as she configured the last few details that remained. I took in a deep, nervous breath, careful not to let her hear. She was already nervous enough. We've been working on this program for months on end, and now it's finally ready for testing. Aelita is worried sick that something will happen to me, therefore I must try my best to be brave: for both her and myself. Though it's been years since XANA was defeated, we still visit the factory frequently. It's like we can't pull ourselves away. I suppose old habits are hard to break, and, now that we've got the program, we've got an excuse to be here.

I must say I'm not sure how I feel about being the guinea pig on this experiment, but all I know is that this was my idea, and I'm sure as heck not letting Aelita go through all this. If anything happened to her I'd never be able to forgive myself.

"Jeremie," Aelita sighed heavily. "It's ready." She spun around in the computer chair to face me, worried lines creasing her beautiful face, worry in her deep, green eyes. I nodded. She typed a few more details into the computer as I headed to the elevator.

"Jeremie?" Aelita asked as she met my gaze. "Wait for me in the scanner room before you go." I nodded once more; I didn't trust myself to speak. The look in her eyes pained me, like a dagger thrust through my heart. The thought of losing me had done this to her, and I had caused it.

The elevator door closed and my eyes were still fixed on the spot where hers once were. When the doors opened once more I saw the scanners, cold and metallic, staring me in the face. I stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the scanner directly in from of me, opening and releasing steam as I did so. I was walking directly into the mouth of a dragon. I heard the elevator doors close behind me. I stared at the scanner before me as I waited to hear them open again. I don't recall ever being so intimidated by a lot of metal.

The doors of the elevator opened behind me, and I heard Aelita step out. I inhaled deeply as she approached me, placing one hand on my back. For a moment she stared at the scanner as well, but then she turned the attention of her large green emeralds towards me. I could tell she was looking at me from my peripheral vision, but I couldn't bring myself to return her gaze until a few moments later.

"Aelita, I'll be fine." I assured her, not quite believing my own words. She sighed once more and nodded. "Just in case." She said as she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me softly. I could see the tears in her eyes after she had pulled away, a lump building in my throat as well. This hadn't been tested, and it could very well kill me. And both of us knew that, all too well.

"I love you." I assured her. "I love you, too." Her voice cracked as she responded. "Let's get this over with." I said as I looked back at the scanner once more. She nodded and headed back to the elevator.

I stepped into the scanner feeling spasms of panic rush through my body as I felt the cold, metal walls. "Good luck, Jeremie." I heard Aelita's voice through the intercom. The doors closed and I squeezed my eyes shut tight. I held my breath as a breeze began to grow around me, lifting me off the ground. Through my closed eyes I saw flashes of light, then a strong wave of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks; like a punch in the stomach. My limbs began to feel shaky, and my head hurt.

All of a sudden, my feet dropped to the ground, and my knees buckled underneath my weight. The doors of the scanner opened in enough time to disallow me to catch myself, causing me to fall on my hands and knees on the cold, hard factory floor.

"Aelita?" I called. No one answered, and I thought that just maybe it had worked. "Aelita?" I called again, this time a bit louder. I took the elevator up to where Aelita once sat, only to find the chair empty.

And then, realization hits me. This is real, and our program was a success… Aelita and I had conquered time travel.

**A/N: Booyah! XD I'm happy. I completed this. I'm getting tired, and it's probably a good thing… I'm getting yelled at to go to bed as I type. And, alas, my final words to you are… please review! ;3**


	2. Come to class, Jeremie!

The keys clacked beneath my fingers as I heard a quiet knock on my door. "Come in." I called without once taking my eyes off of my computer screen.

I heard the door creak open and footsteps coming towards me before I felt the heat of a hand on my shoulder. I glanced up long enough to distinguish it Aelita, then returned to work.

"Jeremie…" she began, "Please come to class… You've already skipped lunch." She said as she slipped a croissant and a cup of coffee on my computer desk, which she was skillfully holding in one hand.

"Aelita… I'm so close." I told her as I looked at her through bloodshot eyes. "And… thanks." I mumbled quietly.

I saw Aelita shake her head in my peripheral vision. "Jeremie, take a break!" She sounded upset. "Aelita, I _can't_." I said as I spun the chair around to face her. The look on her face matched the concern in her voice. She just shook her head.

"You can't keep this up, Jeremie…" She said quietly. I simply stared up at her agonized-looking eyes, no words coming to my mind.

"Jim will probably come looking for you if you miss again." She said quietly, before she moved quickly, but quietly, out of my room.

Crap. I probably just earned myself a seat in the doghouse, but she had to realize how important this is… how close I am to decoding them all… I can't stop _now_! Not a chance. I'm sorry, Aelita…

The rest of my friends were probably worried as well. I'm sure they thought that the only one who'd even have the slightest chance of convincing me to come to class was Aelita… and they were probably right. Not that I'd ever admit it to anyone, though…

I heard a knock on my door, and a wave of panic went instantly through my body. I quickly turned off the monitor, kicked off my shoes, and leaped under the covers of my bed. If Jim caught me on the computer I was toast. Not just toast… I was a whole breakfast platter.

"Come in." I called hoarsely as I heard the door creak open…

**A/N: Hello! ^^**

I bet you expected the next chapter sooner, huh? Well… so did I. But it didn't happen. Not until now. So yayzers. Anyway, I have no idea when the next chapter will be up. Pester me or something. :B

**~Aechigo**


	3. Pretending Jer has a Sister

**A/N: Aha… Wow. Ready to kill me yet, loyal fans? Hah. Fans… I highly doubt any of you would consider yourself a fan of myself. Anyyway~**

**But yeah. I really expected this to be up sooner but I suppose it's good that it's even up at all.**

**Boo school! 8D**

"So, Mister Belpois," began Headmaster Delmas, "You wish to see your son? Under what circumstances, may I ask?"

Living a lie when I was a teen did in fact pay off some. It taught me to think on my feet. Who said lying never benefited you? "There's been a death in our family," I said, making things up as I went along, "My sister, his aunt… Natasha, has been in a tragic accident." I pretended like I actually _had_ a sister, and put on my most solemn face, hoping for sympathy. It worked.

"I'm so sorry to hear about that, Mr. Belpois…" Delmas apologized, as he looked my old schedule up on the computer. I knew for a fact that I had gym this period, and I knew for certain that I would be in my room, skipping, and Aelita and the rest of my friends would be concerned about my welfare. Delmas frowned. "It appears that your son wasn't able to make it to his third mod this afternoon… He should be in his room." He began to tell me the room number and offered to help me find it, but I reassured him that I was capable of finding my "son's" room on my own.

I'm not the least bit surprised Delmas didn't question that I was younger Jeremie's father. After all, I look just like him! (Duh.)

I was about to turn into the proper hallway when I noticed younger Aelita headed for my dorm, as well. If she saw me, she'd probably freak. I don't quite want to mess things up too terribly much. I waited for a few moments, and Aelita came out with a troubled and almost pained expression on her face. I knew instantly my younger self had done something stupid, which wasn't really all that uncommon.

I'd made my way over to my old room with great and unnecessary stealth. I knocked on the door cautiously. I heard my younger self scrambling inside. Of course, I thought I was Jim coming to check on me. Wow, that's confusing, even for me…

"Come in," I heard my younger self call hoarsely from inside. It made me almost want to give myself a lecture on how _fake_ that fake sick voice sounded, but I refrained.

I wasn't quite sure how my younger self would react, and I had other things to think about when I was a kid than imagine what it would be like if I traveled back in time when I was older and was able to meet my older self. With that, I also hadn't known how time worked, which was mainly because I hadn't the time to think about it. Now, though, I was on almost an experiment trip. My main goals were to observe the effects of the "visit from the future" on my younger self, as well as to see how my visit to the past affected the future, and, if I changed the future accidentally for the worst, if I could change things back to the way they were before. It's a dangerous thing, true, but someone had to do it. Why not us?

I opened the door slowly, almost reluctantly, a little unsure of the outcome. And, as I presumed, my younger self was lying on my old dorm bed, trying his hardest to appear unable to attend class.

**A/N: Sup? Anyway, it's done now and such things. Keep on me, please. *waggles finger at self***

**Lol**

**Reviews are awesomecakes, just so y'all know. :P**


	4. Younger Jeremie is So Stubborn!

**A/N: So, readers, long time no see?**

**Not as long as the last time, though, thankfully.**

**On with the story. My hopes for this chapter are that it's both a little longer, and that it'll unravel the plot a bit. ^^**

I felt myself flinch slightly, before I opened my eyes to see a man before me, which looked nothing like my corpulent gym teacher. I must've given him an odd stare unintentionally, because he looked slightly bewildered. He was hesitant at first to speak, so I did so instead. "Who are you?" I asked him, inquisitiveness and slight trepidation coating my tone. It took a moment for him to respond, as I watched him conscientiously.

Irresolutely he spoke. "I'm here testing a program that my wife and I invented… And it worked." He seemed astonished by something that I was completely ignorant to. I furrowed my brows and waited on him to explain himself, to say something that actually made sense.

"The program was time travel, and I'm from the future." He said, diffidently. I sprang up in my bed, a bit too quickly, a cloud of red dots showering my vision. "Impossible!" I said, a bit too loudly. "Who _are_ you?" I demanded. He took a deep breath, appeared as if he were having a mental argument with himself inside his head, then finally decided, so I thought, to speak, and, perhaps, actually tell me the truth.

"Jeremie," he spoke my name, confirming that, in fact, he _had_ to know me somehow, which freaked me out, "I really do come from the future… I do wish you would believe… your older self." He looked down, then directly into my eyes. An eerie silence passed over as I tried to process the information given me, deciding whether or not to believe the man who really _did_ look like an older version of myself, come to think of it.

I don't know _what_ kept my composure intact, but something kept me calm. Calm enough, that is, to think things through. To the man's advantage, he _did_ resemble myself, but he was taller, his hair was a bit longer, his shoulders were wider, and he looked much stronger than I. He also looked as if he could outrun me… Which was kind of bad if I was planning on trying to flee, as instinct had first told me to.

I just looked at him from where I sat, puzzled. I had so many questions that needed to be answered, but I wasn't about to reveal my secrets, especially not so early in the game to someone who, for all I know, could be a polymorph who hasn't yet tried to kill me. It was hard to tell who people were walking into your dorms, these days. I decided to ask him a question that was current, as opposed to asking something about the future, which could easily be lied about.

"If you truly are myself from the future," I began, inquisitively, "Tell me something about myself that I've never told anyone else." I was curious as to what he'd say.

"Well," he began, "I know you have a huge crush on Aelita." He smirked. I felt heat rise to my cheeks instantaneously. "Sorry," he apologized, "first thing that popped into my head." I frowned at him slightly, my cheeks still burning fervently. "As much as I'd like to reprimand you for that, I cannot. I can, on the other hand deny it, which I plan to do at this very moment. Something else." I scowled.

He seemed to be amused by my embarrassment, which kind of ticked me off. He thought for a moment. "Have you finished decoding Franz Hopper's diaries yet?" He asked. I started at him blankly, not about to answer. "You at least know that he's Aelita's father, correct?"

"Something about _me_." I emphasized, avoiding questions that XANA could very well know the answer to. He let out a hefty sigh. "Well, I know that you ignorantly work yourself nonstop, night and day, and I know that your friends worry terribly that you're working yourself to death. And I know that Aelita isn't going to be so happy with you, either. Not after whatever it was you just said to her right before I came in." I was frustrating him, which actually was beginning to amuse me. "I still don't know what she saw in me back then, I did nothing but work." I heard him murmur angrily and almost remorsefully to himself. "Wait, wait, wait~ what?" I asked. His attention snapped back to me, instead of grumbling to himself about what was supposedly his past. "You're a stubborn fool. Since you obviously don't believe me nothing I saw now can possibly hurt the future, can it?" he thought out loud, "Fine. I have no idea what Aelita ever saw in me back when I was, well, you. I always threw myself into my work, and, even though it was all for her I don't possibly see why I couldn't just stop and take five minutes to tell her how I felt. I was always too shy to say anything at all to her, and the moment I actually worked up some minimal amount of nerve, I was interrupted and then lost all faith in myself once more." He was seemingly ranting angrily to himself, and he was beginning to freak me out. Even more so, I was actually starting to believe him.

"So… Aelita's your wife?" I asked, blushing and cursing myself for it. I wasn't quite believing him 100% or anything, but I figured I might as well ask him things. He rolled his eyes. "That's really all you care about? And, yes, she is." He answered. "No, no~ you didn't let me finish." I backpedaled. "This program you developed… tell me how it works."I interrogated. "It's an advancement on the return to the past; after XANA was defeated we had a lot of time on our hands, so with it we decided we might as well conquer time travel or something." He shrugged. "We figured if energy equals matter times the speed of light squared, if we somehow managed to get the speed of what now to you is simply 'virtualization' to move past the speed of light, then perhaps we could reverse it and travel backwards into time."

The scary thing was, it made sense to me. I nodded. "Then why are you here?" I asked. "I'm here to see if what I tell you affects the future. It's very serious business, mind you, so that's why I have this." He said, as he pulled a disc out of his back pocket. "Everything you need to recreate our time travel program is on this. Don't let it fall into the wrong hands." He warned. "If I mess things up, it's up to you to fix them, if you can." I gave him a quizzical look. He shook his head. "Out of all honesty, I'm not sure quite yet, myself." I was beginning to feel concerned. What if something I decided to do in the future _wrecked_ the future with no way to fix it?

"So, what would you like to know about the future?" he asked solemnly.

**A/N: That time travel explanation made me feel smart xD**

**Sooo what does younger Jer wanna kno about the future? Lol**

**Find out next time, kiddies3**

**~Aechigo**


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